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Search engines ‘being recognised'
Friday, May 22 2004
Search engines are now being recognised as real business enterprises,
but the industry still faces challenges, says Mark Buwalda, MD of
South African search portal Ananzi.
“In Ananzi's experience, larger advertising agencies have,
for the most part, been reluctant to take advantage of advertising
on the Internet, but this kind of advertising has proven to be very
successful, and we would like to see the Internet become more popular
as a medium for advertising in the future.”
He says there are various reasons for the reluctance to advertise
on the Net. One is that agencies often don't know what the Internet
can do.
“I've had cases where we would go to a client, the client
was absolutely convinced that it would be a good idea and what happens
is that the agency then takes over, with no real experience in it,
and in round three we die, because then they decide well the budget's
too high, you've quoted us too much, and then it gets kicked out.
“We try to make a difference to the bottom line of the business
while they want to do branding exercises, positioning and all that
kind of stuff.”
However, he believes perceptions will change, particularly with
the formation of the Online Publishers' Association (OPA), of which
Buwalda is deputy chairman.
The OPA announced recently it was using Nielsen/NetRatings SiteCensus
across its membership, aimed at addressing advertisers' concerns
about the accuracy of information concerning demographics of Internet
sites.
Buwalda says perceptions are changing, particularly with regard
to advertising by small to medium-sized enterprises.
“Small to medium in this country is tiny in comparison to
some of the European countries, but even so they want to reach people.
They want to reach niche areas. And also they're able and capable
of reacting quickly to a lukewarm lead that just happens to come
through the Internet.
“Yet they can't spend the money to go into newspapers and
other print magazines to reach the larger audience and yet with
the Internet it's reasonably easy. We have more than 700 000 unique
users. You try to find a newspaper that does that.”
He says US search engine Google's decision to list its shares is
also a positive development for the Internet industry as a whole,
and that alone is helping to change perceptions.
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